After the Swine Flu

Today was the first day back to school for primary and middle schools after a two week hiatus due to the swine flu. (My apologies to the pork industry - "Swine Flu" has such a nice ring to it!) At my middle school, every student and teacher received a ziploc full of goodies - two facemasks, a tiny bar of soap, a diminutive packet of hand sanitizer and a wipie! Many of my students were wearing their facemasks properly. The rest of the kids were wearing "neckmasks"! I'm not much a fan of facemasks, so mine also decorated my neck for the first period and then somehow got lost for the second period. Classrooms were "disinfected" last Thursday and Friday which resulted in any teaching materials I had left in the room being tossed into the trash. Like a good U.S. teacher, I had my word wall, student work, and other didactic material up on the walls. "Had" is the operative word, because apparently, even paper on the wall could harbour the dangerous flu virus! To my dismay, student notebooks with over 8 months of work and notes were also thrown out! Ni modo (the all purpose Mexican phrase meaning "oh well - nothin' I can do about it!".
One of the more interesting things about today was the conversations that I had with my colleagues. Most appreciated a bit of time off and many escaped from the city to other parts of Mexico to be with family. Several concurred that President Obama is responsible for the virus - after all, he visited President Felipe Calderon the day proceeding the outbreak! When I asked another colleague what he opined about this viewpoint, he said "Son pendejadas!!"
Anyway, it hasn't been "Just another day in Mexico!" I'm happy to be back at work!